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by amitiel



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, mermaid au, merman au, reuniting with lost love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:34:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25925221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amitiel/pseuds/amitiel
Summary: Riku has always felt like something was missing from his life. And every day he sits by the water, wondering what it is.
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29





	Home

Riku hadn’t been born on Destiny Islands like the others were. He wasn’t native born, and he didn’t really fit in with anyone there. Brought there to be raised in the orphanage from a young age, Riku almost felt like he belonged there, but there was inevitably something missing. His parents had been lost at sea, or so he was told. Either way, he had found that the cheerful island of peace and happiness was a place that he couldn’t just quite fit in.

There was one place on the islands that he enjoyed. It was a small plot of sand with a few coconut trees and a ladder climbing down into the water below. Everything in that one spot reminded him of a time when he was younger, when the world felt kinder, and when he didn’t have to worry so much about anything. It was a time when he felt like magic still existed, a time when he could have sworn he saw a boy about his age swimming about with a fin instead of feet.

Riku was told that he spent an inordinate amount of time on that small patch of island, preferring to be there while thinking about how there was an entire world out there where he could potentially fit in better. If he was daring enough, which he inevitably was, he would get in the water and go swimming. Now at twenty, Riku spent his days working and his evenings sitting by the water, thinking about how life could’ve been better if only he did have a fin and could swim away.

It was just another long evening, a beautiful sunset on a serene horizon, as Riku took his usual spot at the edge of the small sandhill, not even big enough to call it a quay. He was shirtless and wearing only his swim trunks, knowing that he was going to take a swim before night fell and he was relegated back to his lonely apartment. Everything there was peaceful, and people stopped to say hello to him. Yet none of them really knew him. For all they knew, if Riku disappeared the next day, they would just remember a strangely silent guy who never really fit in.

As Riku’s feet dangled off the edge, he laid on his back, staring up at the swirling hues of orange and pink, the sunset making his heart yearn for something he never had. It was a nostalgic feeling, like he was longing for the comfort of home or the comfort of someone’s arms. Either way, that home did not exist. That person didn’t exist. He was on his own, and the sooner he understood that, the sooner he would get used to it.

For a moment Riku drifted off to sleep, only to be woken with a splashing noise from below. He opened his eyes just as the water reached his chest, hitting his torso with a coolness that was only startling because he wasn’t expecting it. He sat upright, looking around for the signs of someone there who was playing some sort of prank on him. There was no one. 

But then there was the splash again, and Riku looked down. Amidst the glow of the setting sun refracting thousands of tiny diamonds on the water, there was a young man, both beautiful and smiling. His skin had been kissed by the sun, perfectly tan, his brown hair flowing about his shoulders like he rarely got it cut. And his eyes… They were the ocean set into two beautiful irises, a color that Riku could drown in with little time or effort if he stared long enough.

“Sorry!” he called with a sheepish grin, one that would’ve struck Riku as annoying if it had come from anyone else. From this guy, though, it was just innocent, like he truly didn’t mean to splash him. “I didn’t mean to!”

“What are you doing down there anyway?” Riku asked in return, wondering why this guy looked so familiar. He had never seen him before, or at least he didn’t think he had. “Shouldn’t you be on your way home from work or something?”

“No,” he replied with a shrug. “Shouldn’t you? Do you want to come swimming with me, Riku?”

“How do you know my name?” Riku asked, although he was compelled to say yes and just get it over with. Night was already starting to take over the evening sky, and pretty soon he would have to go home. When the guy just shrugged again, Riku sighed and decided to make the trip down the ladder and into the cool water. 

“It’s pretty warm today,” the guy said when Riku came up for air. He kept his distance from Riku, making him wonder just what the guy was about. “I’m Sora. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you here.”

“How long has it been exactly?” Riku asked, getting the strangest sense that he really had seen Sora before. His eyes were too familiar to forget.

“We were kids the last time I was here,” Sora explained. “I got yelled at pretty badly, but I promised to come back.”

The memory, nearly long forgotten, came back to Riku quickly. A boy in the water, swimming and flitting about with a fin instead of feet. The two of them playing together and laughing with each other, cultivating a bond that he thought was inseparable. Sora saying goodbye and promising to return. The lonely days and nights of waiting to no avail.

That was why Riku had made it a routine to stop there and visit each and every day. While the world spun around him, he was stuck waiting. Waiting and hoping. Through time, through people telling him that he was childish and foolish, that there was no such boy coming back for him, he had tucked the memory away. And that memory had degraded until it was all but a lonely habit, removing him from the world but keeping him tethered to his faded memory. But why had he been told to stop dreaming?

“I remember now,” Riku said, looking out at the setting sun before it dipped under the horizon. “Why did you get in trouble? I haven’t seen you at any of the schools and-”

Sora kissed Riku before he could finish what he was saying, taking him off guard. At first he just floated there with him, the sun now entirely set as the moon rose high into the sky. He was too shocked to move until he was suddenly kissing Sora back, the salt water on his lips mingling with the taste of desire, as sweet as honey and as yearning and Riku’s heart. 

Riku wrapped his arms around Sora as he continued to kiss him, their tongues questioning at first then insistent as soon as they were both sure. Sora rested his hands on Riku’s chest, and their bodies pressed together as they both floated in the serenity of each other’s grasp. Riku was entirely unsure of where this sudden passion and desire came from, but he gave into it nonetheless. It was overwhelming, and he found himself on the verge of tears for the immense longing that was dissipating in his heart. 

When Riku dared to open his eyes, he pulled back in shock. Sora did not have any feet, nor did he have any legs. Instead there was a bright, fluorescent tail that was long, beautiful, and flowing in the water. Riku stared in shock and awe as Sora flushed red, the starlight above them only heightening the beauty of Sora’s fin.

“You’re a merman,” Riku said in shock. “That’s why you disappeared.”

“It took a while to come back,” Sora said, as if merfolk were so typical and ordinary for them both that Riku’s shock was for something entirely different. Sora pulled away temporarily, and that’s when Riku noticed a small satchel around his waist. He took out a star shaped fruit and handed it to Riku. “It’s said that if you share it with the person you love then your hearts and fate will become intertwined forever. I… I wanted to give this to you. Back when we were kids I wanted to give it to you. But now I can.”

Riku stared at the fruit, wondering if this was really real. But what was the point of accepting a fruit from someone who wasn’t even human? Would they live separated from the land and the sea forever? The memory of him and Sora swimming together, playing together, promising each other that they would one day marry each other echoed in his mind, as if the floodgates of what he had tried to forget were now coming back to him. They had discussed this such a long time ago, almost every day in fact. Could he just take the paopu fruit and hope for the best?

Uncertainly, Riku took the fruit from Sora, knowing that it wouldn’t help at all if they were so hopelessly different. Why did Sora come back after all this time? Was it to break Riku’s heart again? It had been shattered to the point of trying to forget the first time he said goodbye to Sora. What would happen now that they were older? Would it close off his heart, rendering him heartless, for good?

Sora, however, looked relieved and excited, as if Riku had done the best thing to give them the best chances. “Come on.” 

He took Riku’s free hand and pulled him out into the open waters, the water getting darker as they swam further away from the islands. When Riku looked back and saw that they were impossibly far away, he turned to Sora, fearful that he wouldn’t ever make it back to the shore. Sora was going to be fine. After all, he was a merman and could swim those long distances. Riku, however, could not.

“Here,” Sora said as he took the paopu fruit and broke off two pieces. One was for Riku, and the other was for himself. Sora took the first bite then indicated to Riku that he should do the same.

Staring at the fruit for a moment, Riku put it in his mouth. The sweet flavors overwhelmed his tastebuds long after he swallowed it, and he wondered if this was just a symbolic thing that merfolk did. But then a moment later he felt something changing. It wasn’t unpleasant, just a tickling sensation, like he had sat too long on a limb and it had gone numb.

Looking down, Riku saw his legs and feet begin to transform into a tail and fin. He looked up at Sora in surprise, who was smiling at him in delight. Before Riku could ask what was happening, Sora kissed him and took him under the water, where Riku discovered he could easily breathe. Unable to help himself, Riku took Sora into his arms until the transformation was complete, rendering him no longer human and now merfolk. 

“It’s time to go home,” Sora said, his smile filling Riku’s heart with so much that he had longed for. He wasn’t longing for any one place or any one person. He was longing for Sora.

Sora grabbed Riku’s hand, and they both swam off into the night, heading towards their home and their future together.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a gift to a wonderful person who was kind enough to make me a mood board for one of my fics. <3
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this dear! Thank you again for being amazing!


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